intended for a light, conversational tone.

"Y' all ready for school to-morrow, Whitey?" Bill began, on his
roundabout attack.

"Yeh," Whitey replied gloomily.

"Too bad 'bout you, Injun. Kind o' disappointin', their barrin' you out.
Kind o' unfair, too."

Injun's response to this was as broad a grin as he ever showed to the
world. "Me glad," he said. "No like school."

This was rather a setback to Bill, who had expected to play on Injun's
feeling of resentment. He rolled a cigarette and planned a new line of
attack. He knew that all the punchers would be glad to see him fail to
make Injun talk, and this didn't make Bill any more easy in his mind. It
may have been pleasing to him to have worked up a reputation for knowing
more than the others, but this reputation was not without its drawbacks.
For one thing, it was hard to keep it up; for another, it filled his
friends with glee when he failed to keep it up. He puffed hard on his
cigarette, and thought harder.

Whitey broke the silence. "Tell us a story, Bill," he suggested.

"I ain't exactly got no story in mind," Bill replied. "We was talkin'
'bout folks, b'fore you an' Injun come, an' how they is apt t' be
unjust, 'specially in th' way o' makin' laws an' such, an' it kind o'
got me thinkin' serious; kind o' drove stories out o' my head."